NPCI (National Payments Corporation of India) issued new guidelines to banks, UPI payment apps (PSPs), and third-party United Payment Interface (UPI) service providers for providing safer IPI transaction services.
These guidelines aim to improve safety, enhance user convenience, and reduce errors caused by mobile number changes in UPI transactions. All UPI service providers are required to comply with the new rules by March 31, 2025.
“The Banks, PSP App shall use the Mobile Number Revocation List/Digital Intelligence Platform (MNRL/DIP) and update their database accordingly at regular intervals, at least on weekly basis. The activity of recycled or the churned mobile numbers reflecting correctly in the bank and PSPTTPAP databases will reduce the chances of errors due to churned mobile numbers,” according to the NPCI press release on March 3, 2025.
This is to revoke access to UPI services for inactive numbers.
As per RBI (Reserve Bank of India) circular No: RBI/2024-25/105 CEPD.CO.OBD.No.S1270/50-01-001/2024-25 January 17, 2025 “With a view to mitigate the potential misuse of mobile numbers, Regulated Entities (REs) are advised to: a) Utilize the Mobile Number Revocation List (MNRL)1 available on the Digital Intelligence Platform (DIP) developed by Department of Telecommunications (DoT), Ministry of Communications, Government of India to monitor and clean their customer database. To enhance fraud risk monitoring and prevention, the REs are advised to develop Standard Operating Procedures (SOP) incorporating the required action to be taken including, inter alia, updating the registered mobile number(RMN) after due verification; enhanced monitoring of accounts linked to these revoked mobile numbers for preventing the linked accounts from being operated as Money Mules and / or being involved in cyber frauds, etc.”
What is MNRL Technology?
MNRL is a technology developed by the Department of Telecommunications (DoT) and hosted on the Digital Intelligence Platform (DIP). It allows banks and other regulated entities to revoke access to accounts associated with invalid or deactivated mobile numbers.
This ensures that fraudsters cannot misuse a customer’s previously assigned mobile number for illicit activities.
NPCI is planning to reconcile with UPI service providers to prevent faruds.
What will change in UPI from April 1, 2025?
From April 1st, 2025, onwards, Banks and UPI apps will check and update their mobile number records at least once a week to avoid errors caused by recycled or changed mobile numbers.
UPI apps will ask users for consent before assigning or updating their numeric UPI ID. By default, users should be opted out and must actively choose to opt-in if they wish to use this feature.
Apps are not allowed to ask for this consent during a transaction to avoid confusion.
If NPCI’s system takes too long to verify a Numeric UPI ID, UPI apps can temporarily resolve the issue internally. However, these cases must be reported to NPCI every month for transparency.
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